Conveyor systems are mechanical systems for transporting large objects or materials from one location to another. Such systems may be employed in a variety of throughput applications. For example, conveyor belts are regularly used for translating suitcases, bags or other luggage through airports, for moving parts or components along an assembly line, or for transferring items or packages through a shipping facility. Typically, a conveyor system includes one or more movers for conveying objects in a single dimension or direction, such as a conveyor belt, e.g., a system of two or more pulleys or pulley-like wheels causing motion of a continuous loop band, as well as one or more machines or features for changing a direction of travel of objects being conveyed, as well as for moving objects from one conveyor to another, or for transferring objects into a bin, chute or other like apparatus. Such machines or features are sometimes called “diverters,” “divert mechanisms,” or, simply, “diverts.”
Various types of diverts are used to modify the directions of travel of conveyed objects. For example, a “pop-up” divert installed within a conveying system, e.g., between two conveyor belts, may mechanically or pneumatically rise from beneath an object being conveyed on the belts, lift the object out of a predefined path of the conveying system, and move the object in another direction, such as onto another conveyor or into another apparatus. A pusher divert may include a mechanized extendable implement installed alongside, above or around a moving element of a conveying system, such as a conveyor belt. Upon initiation, a pusher may push an object off of the moving element and into a bin or other container for further processing or removal. A steerable wheel divert may also be installed within a conveyor system and may include one or more wheels that may be mechanically oriented to rotate about a desired axis, which may cause the rotation of the wheels to deviate from an axis of orientation of the conveyor system. When a change in a direction in which objects are being conveyed is desired, the steerable wheel divert may be steered to orient the wheels in a direction that deviates from the axis of orientation by a desired angle, and diverts the objects in the direction defined by the rotation of the wheels.
The use of diverts of the prior art in conveying systems includes a number of inherent limitations, however. First, diverts are static machines or devices which typically feature a single level of functionality. For example, a pusher divert may merely push objects being conveyed in a single direction. As a result, an entire conveying system must usually be taken offline in order to add a divert to, or to remove a divert from, the conveying system for the purpose of moving objects in a desired direction, as conveying systems which include diverts are not easily changed or adapted for different purposes. Second, and perhaps more significantly, each divert requires the use of intrinsic, dedicated hardware usually featuring large and typically heavy motorized components which provide mechanical prime movers in one or more defined direction. For this reason, diverts usually require the most extensive and frequent maintenance of any element of a conveying system.